For a generation, the class has been called Family and Consumer Science, but for many, the more common name was Home Economics. While that may have been the case then, today’s FACS class is anything but.

Absent for many years, Carrollton Junior High School is resurrecting the program with a new focus for a new audience. Principal Travis Thomaston decided to bring it back as a connections class to expose his students to the career pathways that may interest his students when they transition to Carrollton High School.

“The class is structured to align with the career pathways available at the high school to help our students be more informed when they are exploring these options for the future,” he said.

Thomaston said he’s hired a dynamic teacher for the course in Evan Craig, who taught in the career pathways department for years in Douglas County.

“In this course, students get a taste of eight different pathways in one,” she said. “So by the time they leave this class they have a good idea of what courses may interest them.”

Craig said since the exposures are just a quick sampling, students either will develop a spark or decide a course is definitely not for them.

“This helps prevent these students going into high school and wasting a semester, or any time at all,” she said.

Two of the standards, consumer & finance and employability, could be classified generically as “life skills,” something Craig is particularly excited about teaching.

“We started off the year really focused on what ‘adulting’ looks like,” she said. “We really have them explore what they think they really need to know – what they see adults around them do that they think they need to learn how to do.”

Craig is quick to say she doesn’t blame parents for the lack of exposure in these “life skills” areas.

“As moms and dads we lead busy lives and we just keep going,” she said. “We don’t always stop and intentionally teach these things. In this course, they are going to get intentional teaching.”

In the FACS segment, students will explore employability, nutrition and food science, culinary, fashion design, interior design, early childhood education, teaching as a profession, and consumer and finance. Through field trips, they will engage in real-world experiences and leave with a foundational understanding of all the career areas, says Craig.

On Monday, students in Craig’s class studied food nutrition labels through a “Price is Right” game model. Observing the class was Laura Malmquist, School Nutrition director for Carrollton City Schools, who was the last teacher to teach FACS at the junior high more than 20 years ago.

Craig asked her students to rank the best to least healthy of seven options based on sugar, calories, fat, and protein. Then they studied the nutrition labels on the products that either validated or discredited their impressions of healthy eating.

Malmquist was impressed with the engaging way Craig introduced her students to reading nutrition labels, especially for seventh and eighth graders.

“It brought back memories, for sure,” said Malmquist, who also worked at CHS as an administrator and sees the benefit of this class for future high schoolers. “What is a huge difference now is the alignment with the high school courses. This is going to make a big difference for these students.”

CUTLINE

Evan Craig, Carrollton Junior High School’s new Family and Consumer Science teacher, holds up an energy drink she purchased for students to guess its nutritional qualities in a “Price is Right” game about nutrition labels.